Monthly Archives: February 2008

I’m betting quite a few people know about this, but I’ll put it out there anyway.

Have you ever tried to run cross-country, most likely through territory much higher level than you are, because you lacked a flight-path and needed to get somewhere? A lot of people do this naked to avoid taking durability damage. Others corpse-hop to bypass dangerous high-level enemies. I found a better way.

Die. Then make the trip as a ghost. You run faster and are impervious to damage. When you get to your destination zone, find the spirit healer there and log out at her feet. Then, log back in and ressurect. If you dont log out, you will ressurect back where you died. If you do log out, you will be ressurected there in your desired zone. It’s useful, especially for low leveled characters that need to visit other capital cities. However, finding the spirit healer in an unfamiliar zone can be difficult. They’re usually located around towns, though.

Maraudon is a late 40’s instance in Desolace that is a key destination for hunters. I attempted this dungeon many a time on my hunter trying to obtain the Infernal Trickster’s Leggings and Bloomsprout Headpiece. As I found, both of these are obtainable through solo runs – as a hunter!

I wont even try to guess if this method is applicable to any other class. It was tailored to my hunter’s abilities and uses Feign Death as a staple means of avoiding fights, so I’m guessing only hunters will benefit from this post. But hey, if you’re the intrepid type, try it on another class and letme know how it goes.

First off, I was a bit above the level range for Maraaudon when I started soloing it. After the dungeon level nerf, Mara is about 46+ or so, and I began at level 50. I will be the first to admit that my hunter was not very well geared (AH greens and a few instance blues). I am not a twink. I’m a terrible player. And I still solo’d this. Here’s how.

Fill your quiver/ammo pouch full. Stock up on a few health potions and mana potions. Make room in your bags if you plan on looting. Pack a ton of food for your pet. Head to Maraudon.
Once you get through the first few twists and turns beyond the great rock doors, you will come to a split in the cavern. One side glows orange, the other purple, and the middle doesnt glow at all. Head into the purple crystals, wind around a bit, and you should come to the entrance fairly quickly.
When you have passed through the portal, you will be in a circular room that is empty except for a group of demon patrols that bounce in and back out. Wait for them to enter the room, then follow them out at a distance to where they stop at a ledge. In this bigger room are many satyrs and imps, but you’ll bypass all of them by jumping off the ledge where the imps stop. Dismiss your pet first. Below, there is an elemental patrol, but chances are you will miss him. If not, call your pet and kill him or Feign Death and wait for him to amble away.
If you jumped correctly, you should be looking directly into a hallway of sorts. Inside is another tree elemental at the foot of a short stairway. Depending on your level, you can either scoot by him along the right wall or kill him. There is another tree patrol that comes down this hallway. You can out run him or wait for him to come by and kill him. I suggest you kill any patrolling mob you see to eliminate problems later. Now, up the stairs. Here awaits a walkway of sorts lined with groups of two satyrs and four-five imp minions. You can run right past them if you’re careful. Be on the lookout for a stealthed satyr that patrols this corridor. Make your wayto the far wall, where the path narrows and bends out of sight. Around the corner is a group of satyr/imp mobs. At level 54, I could walk right past them by hugging the ledge. However, you can also dismiss your pet, run through them, Feign Death, and pop back up. Now get up against the wall and wait for a second stealthed patrol to come by. Kill him. You should be looking at another group of satyrs/imps in a square patch of hallway. Use the run-and-feign technique again. Remember that if your pet is out when you feign, it will transfer aggro to your pet and you will have to wait for it to die before you can pop back up. This is why you brought food. Anyway, now you should be in a circular room with a pool in the center guarded by more satyrs and a few trees. Sneak along to right wall until you get to a hallway leading out to the right. There are two satyr and imps under an overhang. Two patrols walk through here. You can pick them off or wait for them to pass. When the coast is clear, keep to the right side and you can bypass the group completely.
You’re now looking at two tree elementals and beyond them a wide open room flooded with a shallow pool. If your mini-map doesnt read ‘The Vyletongue Seat’, you’re in the wrong place. Once again, your level dictates what you have to kill. You may be able to sneak past the two elementals atop the stairs. You can jump off the ledge to the right and into the water if so.

You need to clear this entire room.

How you do it is up to you. All three trees in the water below the stairs need to die. The satyr/imp group just up the stairs needs to be wiped out. So does the tree half way up, the satyr/imp group at the top, and the three-four trees beyond them. Once that’s done, turn your attention to the boss. Vyletongue is guarded by four minions. Lucky for you, two of them are not linked to him. They are standing in stealth just inside his little inclosure. You can pull them one at a time. Now for Vyletongue himself.

Lay a frost trap (the one that slows, not the one that freezes) just at the left corner of the boss’ enclave. Now run back around the room to where you were killing the trees, just before where the room narrows and leads into the Orange side (there’s a cove with a few satyr in it back here, too, but you may ignore them). On the edge of the room, overlooking where the half-flooded part is, is a tree. One branch comes over the ground back in the corner. Go to it and practice jumping on it a few times. This is your key to crowd control.
Put your pet on passive and STAY in this corner near the branch. Now, run back to where you put the frost trap. The goal is to shoot Vyletongue once, run around the corner to lead him into the trap, and get far enough ahead of him as you race back to the branch so he doesnt hit you with ranged shots as you run. As fast as you can, jump onto the branch, turn, send your pet in to attack, and BACK UP. Here’s the trick: if you stand far enough back on the branch, Vyle’s two minions cant reach you, and will proceed to run all the way around the room, down the stairs, and to the base of the tree to attack you. When they get down there, move forward a bit on the branch, and they’ll run all the way back up. Keep this little dance up while you and your pet take on Vyle. When he’s dead, you can either Feign Death and let the adds kill your pet, then pop back up to loot, or kill the adds. I reccomend Feigning.

Troubleshooting:
1). Remember that Vyletongue can ‘warp’ during combat. The problem I had was that he kept warping out of my range. If this happens, try calling your pet back to you and hope Vyle will follow. He can also use ranged attacks, so pulling him can be tough. Pray he doesnt warp out of your range.
2). If you fall off the branch into the water below, you’re screwed. You cant get all the way back up to the branch without being murdered by the adds. Feign Death, let your pet die and the boss reset, then try again.

Now that Vyle is dead, you can continue through the room to where the green oozes are in the adjacent hallway. These things do massive damage. Dismiss your pet, run through them into the little watery alcove, and Feign. Make sure you’re far enough away from the elemental that you can pop back up safely.
To find Meshlok the Harvester, turn on your Track Elementals. Remember that Meshlok is a rare spawn, so it may take a few runs to find him. He patrols up and down the narrow waterway you’re standing in. If you see a regular mob patrolling, run out and reset. Meshlok takes the place of that regular patrol. Once you find him, the fight is pretty straight-forward for a hunter. He has a stunning ability but you have your pet. If your pet is stunned, stop firing so you dont pull aggro. Good luck!